The Dokdo name is inextricably tied to the dispute over the sovereignty of Dokdo. Therefore, the Korean government has made the utmost effort to promote the use of a single, unified name for the island.

Under these circumstances, the Korean government has actively campaigned to establish Dokdo as the name of the island by correcting foreign map producers and media who use both Dokdo and Takeshima when identifying the island out of either a lack of information or a lack of understanding of the Dokdo matter. 1) Clarification of Romanization
To avoid confusion, the Korean government has clarified the Romanization of Dokdo as follows:

2) English Name of Dokdo

① Romanization of Dokdo
Romanization of the island is “Dokdo” (Refer to Notice 2000-8 of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism)
(As the name Dokdo contains “do,” a suffix meaning island, “Dokdo Island” is redundant and, therefore, should not be used.)

Examples of improper name use:
Dok Island、Dok Islet、Dok Do、Dok－do、Tokdo、Tokto、Tok－do、Tok－to

② Romanization of Dongdo and Seodo
The correct Romanization is Dongdo and Seodo. If necessary, Dongdo (East Island) and Seodo (West Island) may be used.

Examples of proper name use:
The East Island and West Island comprise Dokdo.
Dokdo comprises East Island (Dongdo) and West Island (Seodo)

Examples of improper name use:
East Island and West Island comprise Dokdo. Dokdo is comprised of East Island (Dongdo) and West Island (Seodo)

When an English modifier is used to signify that Dokdo, Dongdo and Seodo are islands, Dokdo and the noun “island” should always appear in the singular form and “islet” or “rock” should not be used.

Examples of proper usage of modifier and noun form:
Dokdo, a beautiful island of Korea.
Dokdo comprises of Dongdo (East Island) and Seodo (West Island)

Examples of improper usage of modifier and noun form:
Dokdo is a lonely rock. Dongdo (East Islet) and Seodo (West Islet) comprise Dokdo. Dokdo is a Korean islet.

3) The Issue of East Sea



The body of water that Koreans have called the East Sea (“Donghae” in Korean) for the past 2000 years is widely known as the Sea of Japan in most other countries.

That name has stood mainly because during the early 20th century when the work of setting standard geographical names was in progress, Korea was unable to participate in the decision-making process as it was under Japanese colonial rule. Japan’s seizure of Korean sovereignty and its rising international status at that time greatly influenced the mindset of the mapmakers of the Western world.

Although this inappropriate descriptor of the sea has been widely accepted by the international community, it has never been recognized by Koreans. Moreover, the Korean government has made a strong case for the legitimacy of the name East Sea at international conferences such as the United Nations (UN) Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. It has also urged private and public organizations including governments, international agencies, map makers, and media to use the name East Sea.

The Northeast Asian History Foundation aims to support the government in its efforts to resolve this matter in a systematic and effective way with the help of the private sector.

4) Background on the Naming of the East Sea

References:Publicity Material on East Sea (in Korean)
Publicity Material on East Sea (in English)

More detailed information is available through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

5) Legitimacy of the Name East Sea

The name East Sea has been in continuous use for 2,000 years. East Sea has been the recognized name for the waters in question for roughly 2,000 years. As indicated in the book Samguksagi (History of the Three Kingdoms), the first known use of the name East Sea was in 37 B.C., predating the national name Japan--first put into official use in the 8th century--by some 700 years.

Simultaneous use of the descriptors East Sea and Sea of Japan is reasonable from the perspective of international law.

In the case of ongoing conflicts over geographical names, the UN Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names recommends concurrent use of both names in the interim. That being said, since the sea itself is bordered by South Korea, North Koreas, Japan and Russia, there is a clear need to agree on a name that is acceptable to all four nations. If the nations involved fail to arrive at a consensus, it is advisable that both names appear concurrently.

Furthermore, it has long been general practice to decide on maritime geographical names based on names of continents located on the left side. Korea’s position is that the descriptor East Sea identifies it as the sea to the east of the Eurasian continent, not only the Korean peninsula.

6) The Case for Sea of Japan

－ The term Sea of Japan is widely recognized by the international community and some 95 percent of world maps have adopted that name. Changing the name of the sea could cause unnecessary confusion.

－ The name Sea of Japan was established during the late 18th to early 19th century by the Western world. It has been said that Japan used its growing diplomatic clout to force the use of this descriptor in the late 19th century in what was a successful effort to broadly establish the name Sea of Japan in the international community. Therefore, the term is not related to Japanese colonial rule.

－ The name Sea of Japan came from geographical features of the area Since the Japanese archipelago separates this sea from the Pacific Ocean, the waters in question are rightly called the Sea of Japan and the descriptor does not imply that Japan holds any claim on the sea.

7) Korean Government’s Response



The Korean government’s ultimate goal is to persuade the international community to recognize the name East Sea as the official, historically proper English nomenclature for the sea area in question.

At the moment, however, there are some situations where the use of only the name East Sea on its own is not feasible. In those situations, the Korean government supports the concurrent use of both descriptors in accordance with applicable international standardization rules.

The Korean government has made steady efforts to raise international awareness on this issue and push for negotiations, while taking the long view.

Over the last decade, the government’s efforts to restore the historically proper descriptor have begun to yield some encouraging results: more and more map makers and publishers worldwide are identifying the sea concurrently as East Sea / Sea of Japan.

① Reference Information
Identification of the East Sea in Ancient Western Maps It was in the early 16th century that the sea area between the Korean peninsula and the Japanese archipelago began to appear on world maps following worldwide voyages of discovery. From the 16th century to the early 19th century, Westerners used various names for this sea, including Sea of Joseon, Sea of Korea, Eastern Sea, Oriental Sea, Sea of China, and Sea of Japan, but the descriptor used most frequently was undoubtedly Sea of Korea. Beginning in the mid-19th century, however, the name Sea of Japan began to appear as often as Sea of Korea until the late 19th century, when the former started to gain wider acceptance. Since the early 20th century, the name Sea of Japan has been used for the most part on world maps and in publications. The nautical chart which Jean François de Galaup, Comte de La Pérouse, a French explorer and naval officer, published in 1797 after his marine expedition to Korea, Japan, and Russia (Sakhalin), and another map of the Pacific drawn by John Arrowsmith in 1798, identified the sea in question as Sea of Japan. After that, the name Sea of Korea appeared less frequently. Since the late 19th century, most maps have used the name Sea of Japan. When the Russo-Japanese War broke out, major newspapers around the world used that name in their articles and following Japanese colonial rule of Korea, it has become the most widely accepted name for the sea.

② East Sea in Korean Writings and Ancient Maps
The first recorded use of the name East Sea can be traced back to a description by King Dongmyeong of the Goguryeo Kingdom in the 12th century publication Samguksagi (History of Three Kingdoms), Korea’s oldest history book. Samguksagi contains 13 poems that refer to the East Sea, and Samgukyusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms), has 15. One of Korea’s oldest atlases, Sinjeung dongguk yeoji seungnam (Newly Expanded Survey of the Geography of Korea, 1530) includes maps of Gyeongsang, Hamgyeong, and Gangwon provinces that clearly refer to the sea as Great Sea of the Lower East (Dongjeodaehae). The oldest known map among those that use the exact name East Sea (Donghae) is the “Map of Yeongnam”, which Joseon’s Border Defense Council (Bibyeonsa) produced in the late 1740s. The name Sea of Japan first appeared in 1602 in the Complete Map of the World drawn by Matteo Ricci, the Italian Catholic missionary who was based in Beijing.

③ International Norms
The UN Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names (UNCSGN) and the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) are the two international organizations that provide applicable guidelines when two or more countries sharing a geographical feature do not agree on a common name.

UNCSGN Resolution III/20 (1977)
Recommends that when a geographical feature is under the sovereignty of more than one country or is divided among two or more countries and the countries sharing a given geographical feature do not succeed in agreeing on a common name, it should be a general rule of international cartography that the name used by each of the countries concerned will be accepted.

IHO Technical Resolution A 4.2.6 (1974)
Recommends that in a situation where two or more countries share a given geographical feature for example, a bay, strait, channel or archipelago and use different name forms, they should endeavor to reach agreement to affix a single name to the feature concerned. If they have different official languages and cannot agree on a common name form, it is recommended that the name forms of each of the languages in question should be accepted for charts and publications unless technical reasons prevent this practice on small single charts, for example English Channel/La Manche.